Re: [HoE] Saturday's Strange Events

[Rich <toadpooka@usa.net>]

The posse had encountered some cars a way down the road from their town that had been partially
stripped and left with bombs on them by a road gang.  They wanted the cars, but no one had
demolition skill to defuse the "alarm."  So...the ex-NY cop (based on Will Smith in Bad Boys) asks
around town for someone who's got the skill.  He meets up with some 17 or 18-year old guy who CLAIMS
he can defuse a bomb.  Of course, he can, but he's playing it off as if he barely knows what he's
doing.
They get to the site, and leave the improvised bomb technician to do his work.  He proceeds to scare
the carp out of them on several occasions by yelling things like "oops!" very loudly.  He even had
the chutzpah to get out from under the car, run for the side of the road and dive for cover, just to
see if he could get the posse members to do the same.
By now, Mike Laury is getting mightily mad at this guy, so he decides to have a try at it himself. 
He slides under a car, and makes a default demolition roll.  Luckily for him, the "bomb guy" had
actually defused three bombs.  The bomb guy (Jose) let him in on the secret, and they drove away
with three cars in tow.

But, Jose was so much of a smart*ss, Mike had to start a Ridicule contest with him, thus forcing me
to draw cards for stats.  It's now that I decide to use my "ace in the hole" characters.  The posse
had become rather attached to a young trainee saloon keeper from Santa Fe in my Weird West game that
they kept asking (to this very night) for him to come back, even though they left Santa Fe after the
first session, a year and a half ago.  So, I decided that the young lad had a secret talent, the
Knack Tempest, using the hex Old Timer.  He wandered the world for a time, and ended up being asked
to defuse a bomb.
I laid down 12 cards for his Traits, right in front of the posse.  Out came both Jokers, 3 Aces, a
King, A Queen, two Jacks, a Nine of Spades, and a 7 and 3 of Spades.  Our jaws all collectively
dropped for a long while before I transferred the stats to a character sheet.

Now, he's going to travel with the group.  Every time the posse starts acting all uppity, he's just
going to put them to shame.  And Gawd help them when the 'group' that's hunting him comes to
call....

-- 
And so ends the case I call "The Case Of The Guy Who Was So Stressed-Out About His Lost Keys That He
Eventually Had A Heart Attack, And It Turned Out They Were In The Sofa The Whole Time.

Richard A. Ranallo,
The Man They Couldn't Hang